The head of the world chess body, Fide, has temporarily relieved himself of his functions, after being placed on a US sanctions list for alleged ties to the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, an eccentric Russian politician who claims to have been abducted by aliens, said the decision was necessary as contracts needed to be signed for a 2017 chess world championship, due to be held in the US. His deputy will now take charge.

“Mr Ilyumzhinov’s decision to withdraw from any legal, financial and business operations of Fide is to enable him to concentrate on clearing the situation with the US Department of the Treasury,” said a statement from Nigel Freeman, Fide’s executive director.

The US announced sanctions against Ilyumzhinov last month, claiming he had links to the Syrian central bank. The Russian last visited Syria in 2012, when he played chess with Assad, and claims his only involvement with Syria is delivering chess sets to the country. Ilyumzhinov also had cordial relations with the former leaders of Iraq and Libya, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi.

Ilyumzhinov is, to put it mildly, an unusual figure. For many years he ruled the largely Buddhist republic of Kalmykia, in Russia’s southern steppe region. He built a “Chess City” on the outskirts of the capital, Elista, and introduced compulsory chess lessons in schools.

He believes chess is a “cosmic game” that was brought to earth by aliens, and has repeatedly claimed that he was abducted from the balcony of his Moscow apartment by aliens wearing yellow spacesuits.

His autobiography included chapters with titles such as “Without me the people are incomplete” and “It only takes two weeks to have a man killed”. One of his aides was jailed for the murder of an investigative journalist in 1998.

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Ilyumzhinov has been president of Fide since 1995. He combined the job with his leadership of Kalmykia until Vladimir Putin replaced him in 2010. He has much support in the chess world, but also has many critics, notably the grandmaster turned Russian opposition politician Garry Kasparov, who unsuccessfully challenged him in the last Fide leadership election, and claimed the vote was rigged.

After the US sanctions were announced, British grandmaster Nigel Short wrote on Twitter: “Could this be the beginning of the end for Our Great Leader, His Holiness Kirsan Ilyumzhinov?” On Sunday, he called for the EU to put Ilyumzhinov on a sanctions list.

Ilyumzhinov told the Russian agency LifeNews he planned to sue the US justice department for “at least $50bn”.